Anyone who has bought
Stone's bottles should be familiar with their mockery of mass manufactured beer and its drinkers. And they kick the mockery up a notch with their
Bastards lineup, "
This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth."
While it is should be clear that this is good natured banter, one would expect a lot of substance in these beers, to be deserving of such strong words, even as a joke. For folks like me, one of the methods to determine the quality of a beer is to compare it against the best examples; the other method being personal liking. On the two biggest beer websites, Stone's Bastards are listed under the umbrella of "American Strong Ale." Stone claims, and rightfully so, that the very origin of this style is the Arrogant Bastard Ale, and that there's none alike, "
As the progenitor of its style, Arrogant Bastard Ale has reveled in its unprecedented and uncompromising celebration of intensity. There have been many nods to Arrogant Bastard Ale…even outright attempts to copy it… but only one can ever embody the true nature of liquid Arrogance!"
The Arrogant Bastard ale came out
13 years ago and many styles have been invented since so one would expect that American Strong Ale would be a well defined style by now and ask the question, "What are the guidelines for an American Strong Ale?" Since my primary source for all things related to beer styles
BJCP doesn't have any such category, I turned to
Google: click on the link or just see the results in the picture below:
The definitions from these websites are copied here for your convenience, with the exception of Wikipedia definition that draws from these:
- Beeradvocate "Catch all style category for beers from 7.0 percent alcohol by volume and above. Some may even be as high as 25% abv. Characteristics will greatly vary; some have similarities to Barley-wines and Old Ales. Barrel aging is certainly not out of the question."
- ratebeer "Not a style, per se, but the only logical category to incorporate the plethora of strong, stylistically vague beers coming from American micros these days. Some are related to English Strong Ales, but with more hop, while others are ultra-strong variants on the IPA or red ale themes. But no matter how varied their origins or characters might be, all are intense, potent, with generous quantities of hops and malt."
- Home Brewing Wiki "American Strong Ale is a catch-all term used to describe a diverse group of beers brewed by American craft brewers."
My conclusion: There's no such thing as a single quintessential American Strong Ale. I'll add that in my opinion, Stone's Bastards could also be called American Old/Stock Ales, if you need to call them something. Reason being that they taste a lot like aggressively hopped versions of strong, malty, beers. Much like traditional Old ales/Stock ales/Barleywines, only much much hoppier.
In any case, they're a class apart and Stone did invent them!
Now that it's understood (or not) what to expect, let me describe the setting of this tasting. As
this page, titled The Evolution of Arrogance, would reveal, Arrogant Bastard Ale was released in 1997, Double Bastard Ale in 1998, Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale in 2004, and to celebrate 13 years of "liquid arrogance", Stone released Lukcy 13asartd (Lucky Bastard) a few weeks ago.
Beer
| ABV
| Year of release
| Other
|
Arrogant Bastard
| 7.2%
| 1997
| The first American Strong Ale. A strongly hoppy ale with a big malt character too, unlike D/IPAs in which malts are lighter in character.
|
Oaked Arrogant Bastard
| 7.2%
| 2004
| Oaked Arrogant Bastard, just like the name says.
|
Lukcy 13asartd
| 8.5%
| 2010
| A dry hopped blend of AB, OAB, and Double Bastard.
|
Double Bastard
| 11.2%
| 1998
| Arrogant Bastard, doubled. Literally.
|
I am from MN and Stone doesn't have
distribution here. However, many of their offerings are available
30 minutes away in Hudson, WI,
although this won't be the case anymore since they're pulling out of WI too, but might start distributing to MN. We'll see. Anyway, Arrogant Bastard and Oaked AB are easy to find in Hudson but I had to request a friend to get me Double Bastard and Lucky from Chicago and he was kind enough to bring some even though he took the bus. Once I had all the bastards chilling in the fridge, it was time for a tasting. Keep in mind that these ales are palate wreckers, and the order in which we had them was very important! Although, we saved some to try side by side as well. Here are the notes and comments, in the order the beers were sampled:
You're Not Worthy
Poured into a New Belgium snifter. Rust brown colored and clear; dark tan head with good retention and lacing; massive hops in the nose with notes of pine, citrus, herb and grass. Subdued malts, with notes of caramel and brown sugar in the aroma. Medium bodied with firm bitterness and caramel notes
without any sweetness. Very very bitter! More bitter than most IPAs and DIPAs, with sticky character of caramel in body but not in taste. While Stone recommends an enjoy by date, this should be enjoyed at all ages. Finishes clean and bitter. Old review
here.
You're Still Not Worthy
Poured into a New Belgium snifter. I have had and reviewed this beer
before, but when it was within the freshness date and I strongly recommend having it after that date, to let the Oak emerge from the massive shadow of hops. The one in the tasting was past its freshness date and I am glad it was. Looks like Arrogant Bastard, but with a slightly lighter hue and haziness, that is
not chill haze. Hops in the aroma had muted and aroma had strong notes of Oak (wood, vanilla) along with the brown sugar and caramel character. Taste had a similar profile and was still massively bitter: I think it'll take years for the bastards to get any less bitter!
A Slef Trbitue to 13 Yaers of Arorgnace
Poured into a Lucifer snifter.Appearance 5/5Dark ruby, rust brown colored, and slightly hazy with a big and creamy brown head with good head retention and kickass lacing.
Aroma 4.5/5This one sure is aggressively dry hopped, to the extent that other Bastards that are no short of hops seem pale against this one. The aroma has the most intense herbal and leafy character from dry hopping. Very fresh smelling, and un-bastardly to be frank. My only complaint is the complete dominance of hops on caramel and oak.
Taste 4/5Strangely light and fruity taste, perhaps because the palate is conditioned to hop assault by now, but most likely because of the freshness introduced by intense dry hopping combined with the dark caramel sweetness. Yes, the sweetness of malts finally shows up among the group and it's not surprising that it's coming from Double Bastard. However, oak still seems absent.
Mouthfeel 5/5
Body is certainly bigger than AB and OAB. Low carbonation, or perceived so because of higher temperature. Clean finish with a long lasting bitterness and hop flavor.
Drinkability 5/5
Very good.OtherThis is Bastard & a half if you ask me! I can't tell if I'd like to age this one because the hop character will fade, but it's a shame that oakiness is completely shadowed in this version.
Double Bastard
Ye Shall Know the Bastard, and the Bastard Shall Set You Free
Poured into a Duvel tulip.Appearance 5/5Dark ruby and rusty, with the clarity and depth of molten lava. Big brown head, great retention and lacing.
Aroma 4/5
Pine, citrus and caramel rule. Strangely, not as strong smelling as I thought it would be.
Taste 4/5Strongly bittersweet. Very sweet compared to other bastards but more bitter as well. Seems like an American Barleywine except that it's much more close to AB than any other beer. Caramel notes are present but it's mostly the hop flavor that dominates. Finish is quite clean given the amount of malts in this ale.
Mouthfeel 5/5
Viscous, thick, coating and overwhelming with low carbonation. Spot on.Drinkability 5/5Very good, given the ABV. Can't have it too fast and can't have too much, but whatever you can have will go down damn smooth.
Other
This ale is recommended for aging and I sure as hell will if I can get another bottle. After we were done sampling these at least once, someone asked that how do these differ from AIPAs and DIPAs, which makes sense to ask because hops rule these beers. So we cracked open a
Bell's Two Hearted. Holy shit! It tasted like a lightly sweet beverage, like a mango-banana smoothie. I kid you not, no bitterness and no hop flavor at all could be perceived. Although the IBUs on the bastards are classified, I have no doubt that they easily exceed 100. On top of that the caramel character is HUGE, like a double, if not triple,
ESB, if any such thing were to exist.
